Peru drug mules offered early release if they help smash smuggling operation

Michaella McCollum Connolly, on of the Peru Two, speaks about her drug use in Ibiza and how she was sest up by a gang.Facebook

Irish drug mule Michaella McCollum Connolly could be home from Peru by Christmas – if she helps cops smash an international gang.

The young Northern Irish girl and Scottish pal Melissa Reid pleaded guilty last week to attempting to smuggle $3million worth of cocaine out of Lima.

They face a minimum of six years in jail but could be released early if they help bring down the drugs gang which gave them the cocaine according to the Daily Mail.

The paper reports that Melissa made an emotional phone call to her mum Debra when she said: “I’m very confused.”

Speaking to her mother during a fundraising event in her native Glasgow. Her mum told the crowd: ‘Thank you so much. Your support keeps us strong.’

The report also says that the pair have been warned that a citation document contains a raft of damning texts, calls, money transfers and photos that do nothing to support the claim they were coerced into smuggling by armed Colombian mafia who kidnapped them in Ibiza.

The paper says the pair could be out within two months if they admit they fabricated the story and agree to stop shielding the criminals and collaborate in bringing them down.

Dr Juan Mendoza Abarca, head of the state attorney’s anti-drugs unit, told the paper: “They hold their whole future in their hands. This is going to be their last chance to get an early termination on their sentence and by-pass a trial.

‘”hey have the option of collaborating with the state prosecution or saying nothing and going to jail for a very long time.

“There is a possibility these two women can be out of prison in around two months but they simply can’t plead guilty and say they were forced.

“They need to go into detail about who these other men involved are - what they look like and where we can find them.

“The evidence that we have is overwhelming and they don’t have anything to suggest they were forced.”

A source close to the case also told the paper: “If Melissa and Michaella do know more than they are letting on, then they face an agonising decision.

“Snitching on an international drugs gang obviously carries its risks, but spending some of the most important years of your life in a hellhole jail thousands of miles from home can’t be very pleasant either.”

Michaella McCollum Connolly, on of the Peru Two, speaks about her drug use in Ibiza and how she was sest up by a gang.Facebook